200 participate in BC Reads and Feeds’ ‘Walk a Mile in Their Shoes’ fundraiser

By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1

Crisp, morning air, and inviting blue skies greeted the roughly 200 walkers who had signed up for the annual BC Reads and Feeds fundraiser.

The fundraiser, dubbed “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes,” aims to raise money that would go to providing food bags for students, and their families, who classify as food insecure. Nutrition and Afterschool Programs director CheyAnne Fant said the nonprofit arm of the school district began as an attempt to supplement federal feeding programs, which, nearly a decade ago, only distributed meals Monday through Friday. According to Fant, the nonprofit would distribute yearly 800 “weekend meal bags.”

Now, however, the federal feeding program operates seven days a week, which decreases the need for the supplementary weekend bags. Though, Fant said, the nonprofit has increased the amount of other meal bags distributed to 2,600.

“With the shift going from five to seven days a week we don’t really have a need for ‘weekend meal bags’ anymore but we shut down the week of Fourth of July so we do bags then and during Christmas Break. We’re also adding birthday bags this year…birthdays are extra expenses for families and if you’re already food insecure then it [the birthday bags] would be a nice treat for them.”

In addition to meals, the nonprofit also hands out books over the summer in an attempt to prevent what is colloquially called the “summer slide,” which “refers to the tendency for students to lose some of the achievement gains they made during the previous school year over the summer break.”

Walk a Mile in Their Shoes is their only fundraiser, though, Fant said, people are free to make a donation year round.

At 8 a.m. the 200 walkers lined up behind the burgundy Reads and Feeds bus to walk from Beula C. Nunn Park on the Glasgow Square to First Christian Church on North Race Street.

Participants were encouraged to skip dinner and breakfast to “emulate children who have their last meal at school,” Fant said.

Before the walk, which began at 8 a.m., the walkers gathered for pictures and jovial, friendly banter under the early morning sun. Some, as in this picture, engaged in a momentary impromptu dance party. Michael Crimmins/Glasgow News 1.

CheyAnne Fant, director of Barren County Schools Nutrition and Afterschool Programs, spoke briefly before the participants gathered behind the burgundy Reads and Feeds bus to begin the mile march. Michael Crimmins/Glasgow News 1.

Following the Reads and Feeds bus and flanked by a Glasgow Police Department vehicle, the 200 walkers slowly trekked down North Race Street as cars slowed, or honked, as they passed. Michael Crimmins/Glasgow News 1.

Roughly 200 participants walked down North Race Street wearing bright red shirts. The distance from the Veterans Wall to the First Christian Church is one mile, CheyAnne Fant, director of Barren County Schools Nutrition and Afterschool Programs, said. Michael Crimmins/Glasgow News 1.

After participants had completed the mile they were offered yogurt parfaits and water bottles. Some participants then began the mile back to the Square while others congregated beside the road to engage in lighthearted, and friendly conversations. Michael Crimmins/Glasgow News 1.